Death on Tour - Janice Hamrick [43]
Eventually, they reached some agreement and Anni returned. She rejoined Charlie and Yvonne, produced a small map and quickly gave instructions. Yvonne nodded in understanding, although Charlie looked a little glassy-eyed and started asking questions. I suppressed a smile and hoped I’d be half as active and alert in fifty years.
Time was passing. We were already ten minutes past our appointed meeting time, and this time it mattered because we were catching a plane. Jerry Morrison looked at his watch and gave Anni a pointed stare. Even Ben and Lydia were shifting from one foot to another as Anni did her swift count. As usual, Flora and Fiona weren’t there. Anni beckoned to a uniformed bellhop and gave him swift instructions in Arabic. He loped off in the direction of the elevators.
“Now you all have left your suitcases outside your doors? Remember, we will not be returning here. Mohammad and our driver will take the luggage to the ship for us while we are away, and when we return we will go directly to the Nile Lotus. Do not leave anything behind. If you have personal belongings that you do not want to take to Abu Simbel, you can leave them right here, and Mohammad will watch them and ensure they make it onto the ship.”
A little reluctantly, we left our carry-on bags in a little pile. “My computer is in that bag,” said Jerry Morrison officiously to Mohammad. “It needs to be hand-carried at all times. No tossing or dropping. And it can’t be left alone even for a minute.”
“Of course, sir,” said Mohammad. “I will handle it myself.”
Jerry eyed him for a moment, then stalked away, only to return a second later and pull the bag out of Mohammad’s hands. “Never mind. I’ll carry it myself.”
Lydia stepped past me, pulling a cigarette and her little ashes carrier out of her purse. “Probably doesn’t want to risk losing his porn collection,” she said in a stage whisper as she went by.
I suppressed a howl of laughter, mostly because I saw Jerry’s head whip around, his expression irate. I looked around to see if Kyla had noticed, but she was standing alone, pointedly not looking in my direction. At the last minute, and somewhat to our collective disappointment, the bellhop returned with Flora and Fiona in tow.
At the airport, we went through the same chaotic check-in process as in Cairo, although because we had no luggage, the security checks took less time. The tiny airport seemed less strict, and only Flora was pulled aside to have her bag searched more carefully. The female security agent pulled an umbrella out of Flora’s huge purse and looked at it in disbelief. The yearly rainfall in all of Egypt was basically zero. Flora tottered on through the metal detector and then wandered off toward the gates and had to be called back. The security agent put the bag back into her hands gently and looked as though she wanted to pat her on the head. Flora looked at her bag bemusedly as though she’d never seen it before. Eventually, Fiona caught up to her and led her away.
Anni handed out our boarding passes, as before trying to ensure couples or families sat together without any regard to the names on the tickets. When she called our names, Kyla took both passes from her. Then, before I knew what she was going to do, she descended on Alan.
“Here,” she said, snapping his pass for herself and handing him ours. “You don’t mind sitting next to what’s her face on the way out, do you?”
She turned on her heel without giving him time to reply. I felt my face redden. Was she just that determined not to sit next to me, or did she think she was doing me a favor? Either way, we were going to have to have a little talk.
Alan made the best of it. “I’d be delighted,” he called to her retreating back, then lowered his voice. “I hope you don’t mind,” he added.
“Not at all,” I answered with what I hoped was a pleasant smile, even though